The U.S. Army has access to enough non-developmental hardware and open systems architectures to execute its plan to digitize the battlefield, but it faces a risk in ruggedizing commercial equipment for military use, according to the service's new digitization master plan.
In response to the rash of F-14 Tomcat crashes in recent months, House defense authorizers intend to add $83 million to the Pentagon's fiscal year 1997 budget for safety upgrades to the fighter, according to House National Security Procurement Subcommittee Chair Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.). House National Security Committee Chairman Floyd Spence (R-S.C.) has agreed to add the funding to the fiscal year 1997 defense authorization bill to upgrade the F-14s and add safety features to the AV-8B Harrier as well, Hunter said on the House floor Wednesday.
U.S. Navy test pilots yesterday touted the safety advantages of a new digital flight control system for the F-14 fighter. The system, initially planned only for F-14Ds, is now slated for all models of the Northrop Grumman fighter following a spate of Tomcat crashes. It is designed to protect aviators from flat spins and carrier landing mishaps. An engine monitoring system is also planned for installation in F- 14s.
Earnings rose 11% to $1.5 billion on 13% stronger sales of $17 billion at General Electric, the company reported yesterday, propelled by acquisitions and "the growth of after-sale services." Revenues rose at 10 out of 12 GE businesses, and profits rose at seven. While GE doesn't break out quarterly results for its units, such as aircraft enginemaker GE Aircraft Engines and leasing giant GE Capital, Chairman Jack Welch singled out the engine business as a key contributor to a record first-quarter performance.
DERLAN INDUSTRIES, TLD., Toronto, said its Derlan Aerospace Canada unit has received two contracts from Boeing Helicopter totaling $16 million. Under the largest contract, for $11.2 million, Derlan will supply parts for 47 Dynamic Component Upgrade (DCU) kits for the CH-46 helicopter. The other contract, for $4.8 million, calls for Derlan to manufacture ring gears for the CH-46.
BFGOODRICH AEROSPACE acquired a 140,000 square-foot building adjoining the site of its carbon brake disc facility in Pueblo, Colo., a move that it said effectively doubles the floor space of the operation. The Carbon Products operation makes carbon brake materials for commercial, regional, business and military aircraft.
GULFSTREAM AIRCRAFT INC., Savannah, Ga., has completed 16 weeks of ground- based static proof testing of the Gulfstream V business jet. It said all 21 of the test conditions required for FAA certification in the U.S. and JAA certification in Europe were finished two weeks ahead of schedule. In flight test, the company said, demonstration maneuver margins at high altitudes are better than predicted. It said the plane has executed bank angles of 45 degrees at 51,000 feet without buffet.
CON-SPACE COMMUNICATIONS LTD., Richmond, B.C., will equip the Canadian Air Force with intercom and alarm systems to be used in aircraft fuel tank inspection and maintenance work. The U.S. Air Force, Royal New Zealand Air Force, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and many airlines already use Con-Space systems to service their aircraft fuel tanks, the company said. James L. Swanson, chairman of the company, said the order is valued at more than $70,000, "but more importantly the [Canadian] Air Force has standardized on our equipment for all their aircraft fuel tank work.
FORECASTED HIGH WINDS at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., yesterday prompted a one- day delay of today's launch of a Delta II rocket carrying the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization's Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) satellite.
The Federal Trade Commission yesterday approved Lockheed Martin's acquisition of Loral Corp., with Lockheed Martin agreeing to certain FTC anti-trust concerns. "Lockheed Martin Corporation will settle Federal Trade Commission charges that its $9.1 billion acquisition of Loral Corporation would violate antitrust laws," the FTC said.
Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), chairman of the House National Security research and development subcommittee, said yesterday that the Navy Upper Tier missile defense system is not allowed to use external cueing, which in effect limits its effective range. He said this has "dumbed down" the system.
LIBERTY TECHNOLOGIES INC., Conshohocken, Pa., has sold a radiographic film digitization system to Robins AFB, Ga. It said that because the Air Force uses conventional radiography to identify cracks, corrosion and foreign object damage on aircraft, it has hundreds of film radiographs that must be documented, filed and maintained. It said digitizing allows long-term, low- cost, and reliable electronic archiving and management of such images.
EDO CORP., College Point, N.Y., said its EDO Ceramics unit will supply actuators to Barry Controls of Brighton, Mass., under $2.1 million contract. The devices will be used in the Stacis 2000 Active Vibration Control Isolation System, the first precision manufacturing system of its kind. EDO said it allows "dramatic improvements in the operation of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, such as steppers, scanning electron microscopes, grinders and inspection equipment."
CONCENTRA CORP., Burlington, Mass., said Boeing Co. has made an additional $1.75 million purchase of its engineering software, called The ICAD System. Boeing already uses it "for conceptual design, airframe structure design, wire harness routing, cabin layout and tooling design on the 777 and 737 programs," Concentra said. It said Boeing will now use the software "to reduce design cycle time for electrical configuration on new plane orders, and more broadly for the design of an upcoming airplane program."
A JOINT VENTURE of American Materials&Technologies Corp.'s Culver City Composites unit in Los Angeles and Advanced Polymer Sciences Inc. of Cleveland has been formed to produce and market composite materials reinforced with graphite, aramid or fiberglass and Siloxirane, a patented molecular entity invented by APS. Siloxirane "is useful for aerospace applications, printed circuit boards and seismic retrofit," the companies said. They said Culver City Composites Corp. "will soon make sample amounts of this new product available to the market."
The intelligence community should think again about a planned fiscal year 1997 buy of Titan IV space launchers, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence said in a staff report released Tuesday.
The Dept. of Defense notified Congress this week that it plans nearly $2 billion worth of weapons sales to six countries. The largest proposed sale is 21 new production F-16C/D fighters and updates to older F-16C/Ds for Egypt for $670 million. A spokeswoman for Lockheed Martin, which will supply the planes, said yesterday that "We've been working on this as part of the Egyptian Air Force's modernization plan, the Peace Vector Program."
ORBITAL SCIENCES CORP., Dulles, Va., said yesterday that the British Royal Air Force has awarded a $4.5 million contract to its Fairchild Defense unit to provide mission planning services for its Jaguar program. Orbital said its Fairchild unit is teamed with British Aerospace Systems and Equipment for the effort, which is part of the overall Jaguar 1996 upgrade program. Orbital has an existing contract to supply related equipment to the Royal Air Force.
Rockwell's Collins unit and China are discussing co-production of Collins' traffic alert and collision avoidance system, a company official said. Clay Jones, vice president and general manager of Collins' Air Transport Div., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, said, "We are talking on the when and how and where, and we think we could have a product in about two years." It would be Collins' first co-production program, Jones said.
The Senate Armed Services Committee last evening began marking up legislation calling for deployment by 2003 of a national missile defense (NMD) system to protect the all 50 states of the U.S. Republicans on the panel were expected to concede to Democrats' requests to put off a vote on the "Defend America" bill until President Clinton returns from a trip to Russia.
McDonnell Douglas' profits ballooned in the first quarter to all-time highs, led by strong performances in the F/A-18 Hornet fighter and C-17 airlifter programs, the company reported yesterday. Operating profits for the quarter hit a record $347 million - 10% better than the last record profit performance, turned in last year - on essentially flat revenues of $3.2 billion. Net earnings grew a healthy 25%, to $198 million, compared with $159 million in 1995's first quarter.
TRW said it has delivered the low-data-rate communications payload for the first Milstar Block II satellite, and that it is four months ahead of schedule. TRW Space&Electronics Group said the payload is the third of six it is producing for Milstar prime contractor Lockheed Martin.
FRENCH ENGINEMAKER SNECMA will work with Pratt&Whitney Canada to develop and sell a new small turbofan engine at ratings between 12,000 lbst. and 16,000 lbst., aimed at 70- to 90-passenger regional jets, P&WC reported yesterday. SNECMA is a 50/50 partner with General Electric in the CFM International consortium that had been considering an engine in that size range, but that project has been dormant for some two years. P&WC is a subsidiary of GE rival Pratt&Whitney, but GE itself doesn't compete in that thrust range.
PROSPECTIVE COMPUTER ANALYSTS, INC., Garden City, N.Y., received a U.S. Air Force award valued at an estimated $15 million for engineering and related services in support of the AN/ALR-69 radar warning receiver system, using the Expert System for Quality Assurance (ESQA), Phase III of the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program. The Dept. of Defense, announcing the award on April 11, said the work will be performed at Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, Robins AFB, Ga.
Acknowledging the risk of having only one X-33 test rocket, the director of NASA's Space Transportation Div. told Congress yesterday that the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) budget nevertheless doesn't allow for more. Gary Payton also told the House Science Committee's space and aeronautics subcommittee that further competition in the program would be too costly.
